Accidental Sire(69)

I kept my face pleasant, but I couldn't help but wonder where this was coming from. I was pretty sure that Tina hadn't spoken to me directly before I was turned. It's not like she'd sent me a care package to Jane's house. Hell, I'd barely thought of her, with the exception of those wonky financial reports she'd sent us.

Wait.

I couldn't ask about the financials, because I couldn't quote the numbers out of my head, and I still didn't know whether the number fudging was Council-sanctioned or not. But I could ask her about the other weird discrepancy that came up in my paperwork overload. It would satisfy my morbid curiosity and show Tina that I was a semi-grown-up professional with work duties-who didn't need adult "friends" checking in on her via invasive social media, thank you very much.

I smiled brightly. "Actually, Tina, I'm glad you called, because I had a question for you."

Tina's face practically glowed with pleasure. "Shoot. I'm here for you, anything you need."

"You know that I've been working at the Council office to fill my hours, acting as Jane Jameson-Nightengale's personal assistant?"

Tina's expression faltered just the tiniest bit. "No, I didn't know that."

"And last month, you asked Ophelia to submit a list of her contacts in the area."

Tina nodded. "Yes, I got an e-mail from Jane asking for a list of her contacts."

I pursed my lips. Because Jane specifically said she'd never sent Tina such an e-mail. Something was weird here. And some suspicious itch at the back of my head wouldn't let me drop it.

"Well, Ophelia responded to that request by sending Jane a pretty rude e-mail."

Tina cringed. "Well, that's not good."

"Yeah, the response e-mail has to go into her disciplinary file," I said, deliberately leaving out the part where Jane considered the e-mail too minor to punish Ophelia. "We have to document every little thing around here. You know how vampires are about keeping records."


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"Sure."

"So can you send me a copy of your e-mail?" I asked. "I would print it off from our system, but somehow it got deleted from our server. Our IT department tends to purge anytime someone's Internet activity gets the least bit suspicious."

"I'm not sure I still have it," Tina said. "I empty my in-box pretty often."

Tina's expression faltered for just a microsecond. I couldn't tell if it was annoyance or fear that rearranged her face. From what I'd seen while living at New Dawn, Tina jumped at any chance to prove her loyalty and usefulness to any vampire who crossed her path. Why was she being so slow to jump on an opportunity to do a favor for the head-vampire-bitch-in-charge? Or was she afraid because she'd deleted the e-mail and thought Jane would be upset with her for not saving what could be an important communication?

"Well, just give your in-box a look and see if you can find it," I said.

"Sure thing!" Tina chirped. "So you know, if you need anything-anything at all-you can always call me."

"Just make sure Morgan and Keagan are doing OK, and Ophelia. They play it tough, but they're basically people-shaped marshmallows."

"I will," she said. "Talk to you soon, Meagan."

"Thanks, Tina."



Andrea was nice enough to drive me home to River Oaks, which gave me time to mull over my conversation with Tina. My chat with Morgan and Keagan had been fun and far less perplexing-student government scandals, Homecoming, follow-up stories on the off-campus fire that amounted to no one knowing where the unidentified bodies came from and no one coming forward to claim missing relatives. But Tina's information I didn't know how to process. If Jane hadn't asked her for the list of Ophelia's contacts, why would Tina make the request? Could someone else at the Council office have done so through Jane's e-mail account without her knowing? The Council seemed to have pretty tight IT security, and Jane made it a point not to leave her computer or her office door unlocked. Maybe this was something I should discuss with Ben before I went to Jane with my suspicions. Because that was all I had right now, suspicions, and I didn't want Jane to think I was some hyperreactive Nancy Drew wannabe and therefore unqualified for this job. Not because I loved my job so much but because I had no idea what she would reassign me to.

I came through the door and called, "I'm home!" before I even thought about it. Georgie and Gabriel were still waiting for Jane and Ben to return from work. 

"Dinner's ready. We'll sit down as soon as our wayward workaholics get here," Gabriel told me, taking my bag.